Actions during family fights among ethical violations of Miami to Palm Beach lawyers
Deception, divorce and actions during other family fights put attorneys from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties on the Florida Bar’s monthly list of lawyers disciplined by the state Supreme Court.
In alphabetical order...
Mary Hudson, Palm Beach Gardens
A Bar complaint was filed against Hudson (admitted to the Bar in 2011) in 2019. Letters to Hudson on April 1, 2019 (regular mail to the Bar address), May 5, 2019 (regular mail and one email address), and June 5, 2019 (regular mail and two email addresses), of 2019 got no response.
Hudson’s Bar address is Maverick Law, LLC, 4440 PGA Blvd., Suite No. 600, and state records say Hudson didn’t file the annual report Maverick Law in 2019 as she usually did each March or April. Without the filing of the annual report, Maverick Law was administratively dissolved Sept. 27, 2019.
The Bar investigator spent June 7, 2019, trying phone numbers for Hudson. They were either disconnected, reassigned or didn’t accept a message. In November 2021, the investigator went to the PGA Boulevard address and was told Maverick hadn’t been there in four years.
Hudson has been suspended until April 3 for contempt.
Eric Satin, Delray Beach
Satin’s psychiatrist, Dr. Allan Singer, opined that Satin (admitted in 2009) developed post-traumatic stress disorder during family court hearings in 2020 that limited his access to his children. That led to him showing “signs of paranoia, hypervigilance, extreme fearfulness, irritability and hostility,” during his divorce.
“In Dr. Singer’s opinion, [Satin’s] alleged misconduct was a direct result of his worsening and recurrent PTSD condition.”
The alleged misconduct, according to Satin’s guilty plea for consent judgment:
▪ Being “disruptive and unprofessional” during court proceedings by interrupting the judge and using profanity. Satin got booted from Zoom hearings “on several occasions.”
▪ Filed a pleading with “irrelevant and scandalous information about the recently deceased father” of an attorney on the case. Satin later sent an apology and flowers to the attorney.
▪ Taking money from a joint savings account after the court ordered it untouched without court approval. Satin redeposited the money.
▪ Not complying with a court-ordered evaluation, being found in contempt and jailed until he underwent the evaluation.
▪ Directly emailed the judge, was told that this violated court rules, then emailed the judge again. He also ignored court orders not to communicate directly with his ex-wife.
Satin claims he wasn’t treated fairly during the divorce, and got victimized by false claims from his ex-wife and her family. He especially pointed to an arrest on a domestic violence charge that eventually was dropped.
Satin began his 18-month suspension on Saturday, March 5.
Sean Sheppard, Fort Lauderdale
The disciplinary revocation application Sean Sheppard (admitted in 1995) accepted last September said he’d reimburse Viktoriya Keslin the $550,000 (plus interest) that Keslin and her husband gave Sheppard to hold in his business trust account. He spent it on himself, the Bar said.
It also said he wouldn’t apply for readmission until at least Sept. 3, 2025, disciplinary revocation being the equivalent of disbarment but usually with a possibility of requesting to be readmitted in five years. But, Sheppard got caught making contact with a client after his disciplinary revocation went into effect.
So, now, Sheppard can’t apply for Bar readmission before Sept. 3, 2026.
John Schmitz, Miami
Schmitz (admitted in 1978) is “a party in a contentious family business dispute,” the Bar said.
According to Miami-Dade online court records, there are 41 parties and have been 1,183 docket entries since Schmitz and his wife first filed the still-in-progress case in 2018.
Schmitz and brothers Thomas Schmitz and Michael Schmitz were the directors of the Schmitz Development Co., a family firm started in 1946 and registered with the state of Florida in 1968. After Thomas and Michael died, their widows, Dorothy Joan Schmitz and Cheryl Schmitz, respectively, claimed they should assume their husbands’ positions as company directors.
John Schmitz disagreed and filed this lawsuit to stop his sisters-in-law’s “ill-conceived corporate coup.”
As of Schmitz Development Corp.’s last filing with the state, John Schmitz’s sisters-in-law are listed as company directors and he hasn’t been listed as a director since 2020. Also, his behavior during the proceedings seem to have cost him his Bar membership.
“The circuit court rulings in those proceedings reflect the court’s findings that [John Schmitz] engaged in multiple discovery violations, misrepresentations, and failures to abide by the court’s rulings.”
That above is from Schmitz’s petition for disciplinary revocation, which was accepted Feb. 17. So, the Bar discipline case stemming from the above behavior, which was pending before a referee, disappears. Schmitz, 68, disappears from the Florida Bar until at least 2027.
Jonathan Schwartz, Miami
Schwartz was suspended three years for shenanigans with police photo lineups while representing criminal defendant Virgil Woodson in 2015. As stated in another Miami Herald story that details Schwartz’s actions, one referee found Schwartz not guilty of any violations, while another referee and the state Supreme Court disagreed.
Schwartz begins his suspension on March 19.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 6:28 AM.
